Mal Hargreaves Breaks Hogsmeade
by kincubba
Summary: Mal Hargreaves returns to Hogwarts for his second year. While Harry Potter attempts to unravel the mystery surrounding the Chamber of Secrets, it's up to Mal, Allen and Madam Hooch to stop a series of murders in the nearby town of Hogsmeade. This is a joint project between kincubba and Terra Booma.
1. Chapter 1

Summer months. Super Hot. Kimberly hogging the fan. I hate this so much. Too bad magic was forbidden outside of school; otherwise, I would use a freezing charm to turn my room into my private little ice cube.

I'm so sorry, where are my manners? My name is Malcolm Hargreaves, but most people call me Mal. It was actually my sister who came up with that one. She had gone on a trip to France with my dad one year, when I was young, and had found the word, 'bad' in the French-English dictionary. Mal. She thought it would be cute to give me the nickname.

Now, I hate the fact that she calls it cute, but I can't help but remark about how appropriate the name is. I have the worst luck of anyone in my family. Take my school year, which ended two months ago. I had to fight off one of my friends who was under the curse of one of the darkest and most powerful wizards alive. I mean, it could've been worse. I could've ended up dead. Still, why is it that I couldn't start off my tenure at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry normally?

Contrary to my poor luck, I had made three very close friends at Hogwarts. The first was Caitlyn Brookheart, who I sort of have a crush on. She's extremely smart and reliable. The cool thing is that she lives really close to me, so during the summer, she and I had met up quite often to hang out. Of course, I'm still extremely shy when talking to her, and she knows it.

The second is Grayson Gastan. He's living in Kent at the moment and had only come up once or twice over the summer. He and I are close friends and I feel like I could count on him for anything. He is a genius at Transfiguration and at Defence Against the Dark Arts, two subjects I have extreme trouble in.

The last of the friends that I had the pleasure of meeting last year is quite an interesting one. His name is Allen Rhodes and he tired to kill me last year. Well, it wasn't really him. It was Voldemort trying to kill me through him. It's all very confusing. He only dropped by in London once over the summer, and it was just a short visit. I often wonder what he does in the summer, although, I often wonder what he does in general, seeing as it was hard to know what he was up to even in the school year.

I lay on the sofa at home, wearing nothing but a t-shirt and thin shorts, fanning away at myself with a magazine while Kimberly was safely locked away in her room with the electric fan for comfort. Sometimes she makes me so angry that my hair turns a really dark combination of black and red.

Oh wait. I haven't told you about that yet.

You see, I'm what Dumbledore described as a metamorphmagus. To use a better term of words, I'm a shape shifter. Of course, I can't do too much right now. I barely have control over my hair, which changes colour with my emotion. It's not voluntary.

Last year, I received lessons from a Nymphadora Tonks to help better control my abilities, but I didn't get too far. It was actually interesting telling my parents about this ability. I decided to do it in person as opposed to writing a letter to them about it. Suffice it to say, they were both pretty shocked that I had this strange ability.

Anyways, where was I? Oh, right. I was laying on the sofa one day, when my Barn Owl, Brittle, swooped right in the open window and dropped a few letters on my lap. One was from Grayson, trying to show off his new Nimbus 2001 to me, a copy of the Daily Prophet and a letter from Hogwarts.

My heart jumped with joy at the last one! When I left the school, I felt bored. It was only then that I realized that I had had an amazing time there, and that I really missed being there. Perhaps it was the fact that these days, I didn't get to see my friends on a regular basis.

I opened it up to find a list of books and supplies that I needed for the year ahead. Immediately, I was confused by the list of books. Almost an entire series of books written by a man named Gilderoy Lockhart. Gilderoy Lockhart? Who the heck was that? I peeled myself off the hot, leather sofa and marched over to Kimberly's room. I went in without a knock, and immediately, I gush of cold air hit me in the face. It felt really nice.

"Hurry up and close the door!" she shouted, as I nervously closed it behind me, "What do you want?"

I forgot to mention. I'm a nervous wreck. Despite the fact that I might be described as 'adventurous' and 'intrepid' by some of my friends for my actions last year, but to be honest that's not who I am. I'm timid, quiet and shy. Everything that happened last year was just Grayson pushing me.

Of course, entering Kimberly's room was quite a challenge for my timid brain to handle. "I got my book list, do you know who Gilderoy Lockhart is?" I asked.

"Oh, him?" Yeah, he appeared on my list too. My friend, Natasha, thinks he's the hottest man alive, but I look at his face and I think he's a dweeb."

"Have you ever read one of his books before?"

"Natasha tried to get me to read one of them before, I can't remember which one, but I remember reading and periodically looking at the cover, thinking 'this doofus did all this crap?'"

I giggled at that. My relationship with my sister could be described as love-hate. Most of the time she insults me and laughs at my metamorphmagic abilities. Other times, we share a good laugh with each other.

She was going into her fourth year at Hogwarts, and I had discovered last year that she was highly desired by many of the guys at school, particularly in her year. On more than one occasion, someone from her year would try to get me to hook them up with my sister. It was embarrassing to say the least.

It was at that moment when our mother pushed the door open a bit and poked her head through it. "What are you two doing inside on a day like this?"

She noticed the letter and snatched it out of my hands. "It's my book list, mum."

"Looks like we'll have to take a trip to Diagon Alley tomorrow. Jeez, they have you reading Gilderoy Lockhart? Those books are nothing but lies. Mark my words, one day they'll find out he's been writing nothing but fiction!" she exclaimed.

"Hey! We can get all of Owen's new stuff for his first year!" Kimberly mentioned.

Oh yes. I forgot to mention. My younger brother was going to Hogwarts this year.


	2. Chapter 2

My brother's name is Owen. He's a year younger than me, but most of my life, people have been calling us twins. We are pretty similar, except for the fact that his hair doesn't change colour whenever your emotions change. Oh, I also forgot to mention that we have different personalities, and that it often leads to some clashing between the two of us.

For example, people would say that I'm not open to new experiences and that meeting new people scares me. In Owen's case, they would say that he's likeable, charming and always open to trying something new.

I find him annoying.

He finds me cowardly.

Anyways, it was his first year at Hogwarts, and I could already think of the trouble he'll cause there. Unlike when I got my letter of acceptance, when he got his, there was little argument or discussion about whether or not he was to go. I guess, when two of your three kids are going to one school, it wouldn't make sense to send them to a different one.

I mused to myself at what house he would be put in at Hogwarts. Most of my family went through their seven years at Hogwarts in Ravenclaw. I was no exception, and neither was Kimberly. On the other hand, Owen was not too booky. His sneakiness would earn him a nice place in Slytherin (although, I would personally think that would be too cruel for him). Just the way that he has absolutely no fear in trying new things, that would get him a nice spot in Gryffindor. Of course, he could just as easily wind up in Hufflepuff.

My mother, my two siblings and I were marching down the busy streets of Diagon alley, looking for all of Owen's new school supplies.

"Malcolm, here's fifteen galleons, go buy your new books at Flourish and Blotts. I'm just going to take Owen to get his robes fitted," my mother said as she handed my a small drawstring bag that carried the money, "Don't spend it all!"

"Of course not, mother," I said with a sheepish smile. I could only guess that she smiled because my hair had turn a ridiculous colour. I looked at my reflection in a shop window to confirm it. Right. Pink. That's great.

I hurried along with the tiny drawstring bag, passing by old witches and wizards. I even passed Kimberly and her friends, who were being followed by two guys checking them out. I eventually managed to squeeze myself passed the crowds and into Flourish and Blotts, the local bookstore.

I was quite surprised at what I found, however. Shelves had been toppled over and books had been thrown into being piles. A man, who I assumed was the shopkeeper, was trying his best to clean up the mess. The store was practically empty, aside from myself, the grumbling shopkeeper and a boy who browsed the books near the counter.

"What happened here?" I mumbled to myself.

To my surprise, the boy near the counter looked at me and walked up to me. It was Grayson!

"Two nutters had go at one another about an hour ago. Uh, I think one of them was Weasley's dad, and the other was Malfoy's dad," he said, slamming the book that he was looking at shut.

"Grayson!" I exclaimed.

"That's me!"

"How have you been? I've barely seen you at all this summer."

"I've been okay. Manfred is still as annoying as usual, and my parents are still angry with me for our little adventure last year. They said, and I quote, 'not to go on any more foolish adventures.'"

"Are you going to listen to them though?" I asked, with a mischievous grin.

He returned my grin. "Absolutely not!"

I purchased my books and we left the store, stopping at one of the other stands and getting ice cream. He paid. In fact, he insisted on paying. In fact, he was so insistent on paying that we probably scared the shopkeeper with our little fight on who was paying.

We walked back to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, the outfitter that my brother and mother were at, eating our ice cream. I had chocolate. Grayson had rum and raisin.

"Whoever our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher is, he must really bow down to that Gilderoy Lockhart person," he said.

I looked at him and asked, "You don't like him either, do you?"

"Truthfully, no. I actually can't see how anyone can. He writes about his adventures all over the world, but I mean, if you ever carried out a conversation with him, you could tell he was actually really stupid."

"You've spoken to him before?"

"Well, not exactly. I read an interview on him in the Daily Prophet. Everything he said didn't make any sense at all."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

He stopped. "It seemed like he didn't know what he was talking about. It was like he didn't know the whole story, which is bad, considering he wrote the story."

"Well, if he is lying, he seems to have done it well enough to fool the entire Magical world," I laughed.

He giggled a bit, "Well, not us!"

We spent much of the trip back to Madam Malkin's, laughing about the possibility that he was a fraud. When we got there, my brother was just receiving his package of clothing, and my mother was paying. She turned to us and produced a delightful smile upon the sight of Grayson.

"Grayson! It's good to see you again! Are you all ready for the new year?" she asked, her stiff-grey hair bobbing up and down. Kimberly always teased me, saying that I was the cause of her hair getting so grey.

Grayson nodded.

My mother collected her change and ushered us out the door. "Good to hear! I guess we'll see you on Platform 9 ¾ before you guys leave!"

"Of course, Ms. Hargreaves. Have a good rest of the summer!" he said as he ran off. I waved at him as he went.

As we were walking back to the Leaky Cauldron entrance, she leaned over and said, "He has good manners."

"You think he has manners? Have I mentioned the mess he leaves in the dormitory?" I laughed.


End file.
